JULY 1769 INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND 107 



but a goat or an Indian could have stood. One of these ropes 

 was nearly thirty feet in length ; our guides offered to help 

 us up this pass, but rather recommended one lower down, a 

 few hundred yards away, which was much less dangerous. 

 We did not choose to venture on it, as the sight which was 

 to reward our hazard was nothing but a grove of vae trees, 

 such as we had often seen before. 



In the whole course of this walk the rocks were almost 

 constantly bare to the view, so that I had a most excellent 

 opportunity of searching for any appearance of minerals, but 

 saw not the smallest sign of any. The stones everywhere 

 showed manifest signs of having been at some time or other 

 burnt, indeed I have not yet seen a specimen of stone in the 

 island that has not the visible marks of fire upon it ; small 

 pieces indeed of the hatchet stone may be without them, but 

 I have pieces of the same kind burnt almost to a pumice : 

 the very clay upon the hills shows manifest signs of fire. 

 Possibly the island owes its origin to a volcano, which now 

 no longer burns, or, theoretically speaking, for the sake of 

 those authors who balance this globe by a proper weight of 

 continent placed near these latitudes, this necessary con- 

 tinent may have been sunk by dreadful earthquakes and 

 volcanoes two or three hundred fathoms under the sea, the 

 tops of the highest mountains only remaining above the 

 water in the shape of islands : an undoubted proof being 

 that such a thing now exists, to the great support of their 

 theory, which, were it not for this proof, would have been 

 already totally demolished by the course our ship made 

 from Cape Horn to this island. 



4t?L I employed myself in planting a large quantity of 

 the seeds of water-melons, oranges, lemons, limes, etc., which 

 I had brought from Eio de Janeiro ; they were planted on 

 both sides of the fort in as many varieties of soil as I could 

 choose. I have very little doubt of the former, especially, 

 coming to perfection, as I have given away large quantities 

 of seed among the natives ; I planted some also in the 

 woods. The natives now continually ask me for seeds, and 

 have already shown me melon plants of their raising which 



